Many cooking environments produce an abundance of heat, smoke and flames Indoor and outdoor grills, camp fires, gas and charcoal barbeques all have the potential for producing heat, smoke and flames. In flame-up situations especially, the chef must act quickly to move a food item outside of the flames or else the food item will become burned beyond recognition. To assist in manipulating food items in these environments, a variety of long-handled cooking implements have been devised. Long forks, tongs, knives, and the like have been developed to allow a chef to safely stand away from the heat and flames and manipulate food items to a safer location on the cooking surface. While useful, these long implements cannot be easily broken down to a more manageable size for placing in a small portable cooler, for example, so that the implement can be transported and re-assembled at another cooking location. Along with the lack of portability, it is a given that cooking implements introduced into an environment of smoke and flames become greasy and dirty. Transporting the presently available long implements requires that they be washed thoroughly, and/or wrapped to avoid contacting and contaminating clothing or automobile upholstery, for example. As such, present long implements are best suited to remain at a single cooking location, due to their impracticality in transporting to other locations in a dirt free manner.
Also having sharp utensil ends exposed can be a source for injury as a user reaches for an implement. Exposed fork ends or knife blades of an implement placed in a bag or cooler during transport create a real possibility for injury when a user reaches into the bag or cooler to retrieve the implement for use at another location. It is best if the implements incorporate a sheath or cover over the exposed sharp edges to lend to a safer cooking implement.
U.S. Pat. No. 604, 965 issued to Cartwright discloses a combination potato masher, kettle cleaner and fork. Of interest in this patent is that a hollow sheath serves as a basis for attaching a potato masher and further as a storage device for the fork. Here, the fork is kept free from contact with other surfaces while being stored within the sheath, however, the potato masher implement remains exposed, and is bulky, creating both potential for contamination and creating difficulty in transport due to its ungainly structure. A potato masher is not an implement that is used for manipulating food items in smoke and flames and removing the potato masher from the sheath exposes the fork to the outside environment, thereby reintroducing the potential for contamination from the fork.
Therefore, a needs exists for a long implement that is practical for manipulating food items in heat, smoke and flames and that can additionally be broken down to a manageable size for transporting to other cooking environments without the potential for contaminating clothing, upholstery and the like.